Political obstacles to a clean environment

Abstract

Three wrongs of American politics are discussed—the fragmentation of policy‐making and implementation, its domination by business elites, and a tendency to muddle through public problems. After presenting evidence that environmental deterioration is widespread, despite many laws and substantial spending to combat it, I argue that these three wrongs are obstacles to environmental cleanup. Cleanup would require producers to internalize their environmental costs; it would slow growth and take privileges away from and impose heavy new obligations on the most important and powerful actors in the political system. Our present politics cannot produce such decisions. Environmental conditions will worsen until people feel the severe consequences of environmental deterioration and change old political patterns. I suggest ways to ameliorate the wrongs of American politics and our system of regulating environmental hazards before these systemic changes occur.     

The United Nations convention against the taking of hostages: The inside story

Abstract

This article briefly outlines the four‐year negotiating process from early 1976 to late 1979, which it was necessary to follow before agreement could be reached and the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by consensus, an international treaty designed to make the act of hostage‐taking a universal crime. The treaty requires that a ratifying state prosecute an international hostage‐taker found within its borders or hand over the hostage‐taker to another state for prosecution. It fills existing gaps in international law by abolishing existing “safe havens” for hostage‐takers. The article focuses in particular on the third and final three‐week meeting of the thirty‐five‐nation Ad Hoc Committee established by the United Nations to carry out this task and shows how agreement was finally achieved.     

Averting Environmental Justice Claims? The Role of Environmental Management Systems

Today, more regulatory provisions are in place for protecting low‐income minority populations who shoulder a disproportionate amount of environmental risk. Recognized as communities of “environmental justice,” industrial facilities located within these areas bear greater legal liabilities for and societal scrutiny of their environmental impacts. The authors offer compelling evidence that, in an effort to avoid regulatory and societal claims that they are disproportionately harming minority and ethnic populations, businesses operating inside environmental justice communities tend to adopt an environmental management system (EMS). The article probes whether industries actually improve the environment as a consequence of EMS adoption or whether such systems are simply used to avoid greater governmental scrutiny without necessarily reducing overall environmental risks.     

Stealing from the past: Globalisation,strategic formation and the use of indigenous intellectual property in the biotechnology industry

Biotechnology has proven itself to be one of the most promising and volatile sectors in the world economy. From genetic engineering to the mapping of human cell lines, biotechnology is now a multibillion dollar venture. As a result the trade in biological specimens has increased, with researchers continually seeking new sources for specimens. The goal of our research is to explore two fundamental questions related to the biotechnology industry: (1) what has been the driving force behind the relatively recent explosive growth in the biotechnology industry; (2) what has been the impact on the developing world - which houses the natural resources that are the bases for many of these new biotechnology discoveries? We argue that globalisation has pushed governments, biotechnology firms and universities into strategic alliances that have unfairly included another partner in the creation of these new products: the developing world.